Dixie State won its first-ever Pacific West Conference championship Saturday night after the Storm defeated Hawai'i Hilo in four sets, 25-27, 25-12, 25-17, 25-15, in Hilo, Hawai'i. The victory, coupled with a BYU-Hawai'i home loss later Saturday night to Hawai'i Pacific, gave DSU the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

DSU took two of three on its Hawaiian road swing and has won 15 of its last 17 matches overall to improve to 18-9, 15-4 in PacWest play.

After dropping a hard-fought first set, the Storm breezed through the second set as DSU jumped out to a commanding 10-3 en route to the 13-point win. Dixie State kept the momentum rolling in game three as DSU scored five-straight points and 13 of the set's next 16 points overall to break a 5-5 tie to lead 18-8 and roll to a 2-1 lead in the match. Dixie State led wire-to-wire in the decisive fourth frame and hit a match-high .391 to wrap up the victory.

"The girls stepped up yet again and played their best volleyball of the weekend," Head Coach Robyn Felder said. "That just shows how much heart this group truly has. Now we're coming back home as conference champions and we couldn't feel any better!"

Junior Delayne Daniel (American Fork, Utah/Pleaseant Grove HS) led four Storm players in double figures in kills with a game-high 13 to go with a team-high 16 digs, while sophomore Brette Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) hit .529 to finish with 11 kills, and Lindsay Jones (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) (.444) and senior Makenzi Bird-Murphey (St. George, Utah/Snow Canyon HS) (.318) each had 10 kills. Bird-Murphey also recorded seven block assists in the match to become DSU's all-time block assists leader (232). DSU hit .302 in the match and finished with 52 kills, with junior Kailey Frei (Orem, Utah/Timpanogos HS) assisting on 44 of those points. DSU finished with 71 digs, with senior Alex Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) recording 15 and sophomore Jaclyn Condie (Cottonwood Heights, Utah/Brighton HS) chipping in 12.

Dixie State returns home for its final two regular season games next week, beginning with a non-conference date with in-state foe Westminster College on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m. DSU will then close PacWest play vs. Fresno Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 12 noon. Both matches will be played inside the DSU Student Activities Center.